Punk bands are still using their music to incite change

Here & Now Anytime

NPR

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Baltimore-based band Pinkshift follows a long lineage of punk musicians using their music to condemn injustice and spur activism. Here & Now’s Grace Griffin caught up with the band about their latest album “Earthkeeper” and the importance of centering rage at the world in love for humanity.

Then, are you looking for a festive film to watch this weekend? Here & Now staffers share their picks for the best holiday movie, everything from “Bridget Jones’s Diary” to “Die Hard.”

Click here for our full conversation on spicing up your holiday dinner table with a new dish.

And to listen to our appreciation for "The Muppet Christmas Carol," click here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for here and now anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design.
0:09.2	MathWorks accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science.
0:13.8	Learn more at MathWorks.com.
0:17.4	WBUR Podcasts, Boston. Okay, I need your energy, whatever energy you can't
0:30.6	me, I'm gonna run back to you,
0:32.6	always share it wherever you come back.
0:35.6	So I'm here right now.
0:40.9	Meet the punk band turning anger and hate into love and positive energy.
1:00.8	It's Friday, December 19th, and this is Here and Now Any Time from NPR and WDUR.
1:01.8	I'm Chris Bentley.
1:08.9	Today on the show, what's your favorite Christmas movie?
1:11.9	Here and now producers go to the mat.
1:16.6	Bridget Jones's diary, which to me, it's the only Christmas movie that should ever exist.
1:20.6	I don't even think that was a Christmas movie, but I could be convinced.
1:26.6	Also, we've got a recipe for cranberry swirled cheesecake with an Italian amaretti cookie that will be the talk of the table
1:28.7	around the holidays. But before we get to that, let's rock out. Our digital producer, Grace Griffin,
1:36.9	caught a great show recently by the up-and-coming Baltimore band Pink Shift. They recently wrapped up a tour
1:42.6	in support of their second full-length album, Earthkeeper.
1:46.3	And by the way, Grace booked Chapel Rhone on the show before she was huge. So I trust Grace's taste.
1:54.7	Pink Shift is a punk band, and they channel some of the righteous anger that's long been a part of that subculture.
2:01.7	Their songs condemn immigration raids, anti-trans policies, and the war in Gaza.
2:07.8	But rather than wallow in despair, they want their fans to channel their energy into love for one another.
	...

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